Open House at North Star Orchard

I visited North Star Orchards in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, for their recent open house event.  North Star grows fabulous heirloom fruits such as apples, peaches, and asian pears.  There were many lovely trees to view, and their farmers were all friendly and helpful.

I hungrily await these blossoms becoming fruit!

It was really the perfect day for an outing. Happy Spring to everyone!

Beautiful Gifts!

I just received a lovely gift from blogger and author Lisa Crone of A Bead a Day.  The pendant is large and adorned with aqua and red crystals in an antique brass frame.  It will coordinate with the faceted bi-color crystals in red and brown.

You can see that the pendant is completely open.  I would like to use this in a project where I put some sort of artwork as the base and possibly sealing it with resin.  I just have to do enough planning so I don't irretrievably muck it up!

As if that wasn't enough, I also received various bead strands in lovely shades of blue and turquoise.  Another project to contemplate!  I think I might use silver accents rather than the golden accents that it came with.  The turquoise might "pop" well with yellow or orange colors.  I have used the Cousin jewelry products in my designs before, and they always have many pretty things to get my ideas flowing.

These items were gifted to me, rather than purchased.